Vacuum wheel



Jan. 11, 1938. R. E. MCLEMORE I 2,104,881

VACUUM WHEEL Filed April 26, 1937 1?- .E'. Mia/2701 5 yhwz Patented Jan.11, 1938 z t-leer Robert E. McLemore, Columbus, Ga., assignor to LummusCotton'Gin Co.,'( }o1un1 bus, 'Ga., a corporation of Georgia ApplicationApril 26, 1937, Serial No. 139,(l49

1 Claim.

This invention relates to the promotion of noiselessness in theoperation of cotton treating machinery and particularly that part of theprocess of preparing cotton which is associated with the ginning.

It is common practice to convey the cotton from the truck, to the gin,cleaner, separator, etc., through a conduit by means of a vacuum-inducedair blast, and at every point in the conduit where 0 the cotton must bedropped out to be operated upon by a unit of the cotton-treating system,it must be passed through a vacuum lock, otherwise 1 it could not bedelivered outside of the vacuum conduit, but would be sucked backtogether with air from outside, when the conduit was opened.

to atmosphere.

The vacuum lock usually comprises a flexible bladed wheel mountedina-casing opening on the one hand to the vacuum conduit, and on theother to the apparatus to be served with cotton.

The flexible blades of the wheel necessarily collide or make sweepingcontact with the surrounding wall of the casing to seal in the vacuum,the cotton collecting between the blades of the wheel 2 and being passedfrom within the evacuated region to the outside of that region.

Contact of the flexible blades with the adjacent wall of the casingmakes a loud slapping noise as the vacuum wheel rotates and since thereare at least several of these air locks in most ginning installations,the operation of the machinery is quite noisy. V

The present invention has for its object to provide a modification inthe structure of the vacuum wheel by means of which the noisinessthereof is practically eliminated.

Other objects of the invention will appear as the practical andpreferred embodiment thereof proceeds.

In the drawing throughout the several figures of which the samecharacters of reference have been employed to designate identical parts:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section through a separator,employing a vacuum lock embracing the features of the present inventionbetween the separator and an under-located cleaner, (not shown);

Figure 2 is a longitudinal elevational view of the vacuum wheel; and vFigure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view showing a modification.

Referring now in detail to the figures, the numeral l represents theanterior or inlet end of an air conduit, serving the separator 2 whichseparates air'from the cotton flowing through said conduit. Theposterior or outlet portion of the conduit is represented by the numeral3.

Between the inlet and outlet portions of the vacuum conduit is a screen4 adapted to effect the separation of the air which passes through 5 thescreen and exits by way of the posterior portion 3 of; the conduit andthe cotton which collects against the underneath surface of the screen 4and is wiped oh. by the rotating wiper 5. A damper 6 is positioned abovethe wiper5 and on 10 the opposite side of the screen above said wiper,and rotatable therewith, the object of the damper being to maintain alocal area of the screen above the damper whichisrelieved from thevacuum, permitting the easy removal of the cotton by the 15 wiper. Thecotton drops upon the peripheral surface of the vacuum wheel I which isdrum-shaped as shown in Figure 2, between the blades 8 of said vacuumWheel.

The vacuum wheel is rotatably mounted within a casing 9, said casingbeing open at I 8 to the chamber of the separator which is in fact partof the Vacuum conduit, and the lower portion of the casing is open as atH to the atmosphere, in connection with the cleaner or any other pieceof apparatus that may be beneath the vacuum 0 wheel.

The blades 8 are made of flexible material such as rubber and of suchlength that they collide with the advance edge H of the casing 9 so thatthey bend slightly against the peripheral portion of the casing asindicated at E3 in Figure 1 and thus form a seal between the region ofsubatmospheric pressure within the separator and the region of higherpressure adjacent the opening H 35 of the casing 9.

The arcuate portions of the casing 9 against which the ends of theblades 8 sweep are of sufficient length to permit several blades on eachside of the vacuum wheel to be in contact with them at the same time andthus to maintain at all times a seal between the vacuum conduit andatmosphere.

The cotton dropping upon the wheel 1 between the blades 8 is carried bythe rotation of the vacuum Wheel from within the vacuous atmosphere ofthe separator to the opening II where it is no longer subject to thevacuum, but free to fall by gravity into the underlying machine. TheVacuum wheel rotates at a suitable speed such as for example,revolutions per minute so that the cotton dropping upon the vacuum wheel9 is continuously carried to the outside of the vacuum conduit and thatWithout loss of Vacuum.

It is customary in vacuum wheels to have the flexible blades extendacross the surfaces of said wheels in a direction parallel to the axisof rotation of the wheel so that the entire Width of the blade strikesagainst the edge I2 of the casing, making a substantially continuous andloud slapping noise. I have discovered after much experimentation thatthis noise can be practically eliminated by a slight modification in theconstruction of the vacuum wheel. Figure 1 shows that the periphery ofthe vacuum wheel is made up in the form of arcuate sections I4 of sturdysheet material having outwardly extending lugs I5 at their ends and.that these sections are secured to an underlying cylindrical frame I6 insuch a manner as to space the lugs I5 of the adjacent sections a slightdistance apart. In this space the base of the flexible rubber blade 8 isinserted, being securedby bolts I I passingthrough said lugs and therubber and clamping the rubber in place. In known constructions the lugsI5 extendparallel to the axis of rotation of the vacuum wheel; but in myinvention the lugs are arranged slightly oblique to the direction ofaxis of rotation of said wheel so that the blades are also oblique asshown in Figure 2. By this construction, the advance end of the edge ofthe flexible blade engages the casing first, and the rest of the edgewill radually be bent and follow in. This does not make the solid impactas is produced when the blades must strike their full lengthagainst thecasing as in common practice andconsequently the noise of theiroperation is practically eliminated. v

A variant of the construction and which amounts to a reversal of partsis to have the blades mounted parallel to the axis of rotation of thevacuum wheel as in conventional constructions, but to have the enteringedge of the casing inclined upwardly from one end to the other as shownat I9 in Figure 3, and the discharge edge also inclined as shown at 20,so that the blade in entering Will strike one end only of the edge ofthe casing, and progressively extend its contact with the rest of saidedge as it rotates into the cylindrical part of the casing, and inleaving it will straighten up progressively, from one end. While I havein the above description disclosed what I believe tobe a preferred andpractical embodiment of the invention, it will be understood to thoseskilled in the art that the details of construction and arrangements ofparts are by way of example and not to be construed as limiting thescope of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

What I claim is:'

Vacuum lock comprising a cylindrical casing having openings extendingacross opposite sides, the side walls of said openings being parallel tothe axis of said casing, a rotor mounted coaxially in said casingincluding flexible extending vanes having their free edges parallel tothe axis of the rotor and of such radial length as to engage thecylindrical wall of said casing for sealing it against pneumaticpressure, said vanes having their peripheral edges slightly oblique withrespect to the direction of the axis of therotor whereby the leading endof each vane will first make contact with the walls of the openings onthe advance side with respect to the direction of rotation of saidrotor, the entire peripheral edges of the varies thus progressivelycoming into contact with said walls.

ROBERT E. MCLEMORE.

